Quit or die, says talking cigarette packet

IN A week in which the European Union decided to increase the size and horror factor of health warnings on cigarette packets, New Scientist can exclusively reveal a new twist: a talking cigarette packet that recites a health warning every time you open it. Ironically, the idea comes from a firm that supplies machinery to make cigarettes.

The revelation comes from a patent (GB 2351061) filed by Molins in High Wycombe, Buckinghamshire. A stiff plastic strip connects the hinged lid of a cigarette packet to a microchip and a miniature loudspeaker hidden in the base. As the smoker opens the lid, the strip slides to close a switch and trigger playback of a small recording, which could be musica funeral march, perhapsor a health warning "in any or several languages".

Anti-smoking organisation Action on Smoking and Health (ASH) is highly amused by the idea of a cigarette packet which verbally ...

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